Sunday, January 13, 2013

Plaid Pencil

This lovely Liz Claiborne number was a risky purchase. I only spent $3 on it, but I worked hard to convince myself that I could make something of it. I brought it home from the thrift shop still without a solid plan, merely a vague image of a skirt of some sort. It sat in my refashion pile for months before the light bulb finally came on - a sexy-librarian pencil skirt!

Least flattering picture ever, but

it really conveys my feelings for

the Before condition of the dress.

I began by chopping it off at the underarms.

Next I spun it about a sixth of the way around so that the buttons that were on the left side were now further toward the front. Then I took in the new side seams to fit my hips. I also added a couple darts in the back.

In order to mimic the existing french seams (and to encase the raw edges because this fabric unravels like whoa), I trimmed the excess fabric on the inside of the skirt like so, leaving about 1/4-inch seam allowance on one piece and about 1/2 inch on the other piece. This will reduce the bulk of the seam a bit. Then I folded the 1/2-inch side down over the 1/4-inch side, and then folded them down again and pinned them flat to the skirt.

Now my new side seams look just like the old side seams - from the inside (left) and the outside (right).

For the waistband, I cut three rectangles out of the top of the old dress and pieced them together end-to-end. Then I simply folded them over the top of the the skirt and sewed them down.

I love how the buttons give it a slightly kilt-ish look.

And here you can see the back darts, as well as the originally-centered slit that is now on the back of my leg since I spun the skirt around a bit.